I have always loved flowers. But, several years back, if you had asked me which flower was Calendula or Zinnia, I wouldn’t have been able to tell. I loved stumbling across different flower variety wherever I went and I am glad that I almost always used to photograph them. Going through my old photograph collection makes me realise how obsessed I was with photographing flowers. Now after ten years, I still love flowers dearly, even more than in earlier days. Now, I spend a conscious effort to learn more about each of them. Just today, I spent a quality time poring over several articles on the internet, trying to find out the name of a flower bulb that my mother had buried in a flower pot a couple of years back, which turned out to be Rain Lily. Every summer end it produces small, yellow starry flowers. From my flowers photo collection, I have tried to find the name of most of the flowers and now I have come to love them with a deeper understanding of what they are. When you love something and learn more about it, it makes your heart grow fonder of it and makes you whisper a prayer of thanks to the ultimate Creator for such delightful creations.
While I am uncovering the names of so many flowers that I only knew by sight or discovering new flower varieties, another desire is taking a deeper root in me which is to try growing them in my humble little balcony/terrace garden, one variety at a time. Each plant species has its own requirement, hence a little learning goes before trying to grow them. Yet the learning process is satisfyingly enjoyable. I have tried my hands at growing Calendulas and Dahlias for now and it was an immensely pleasurable experience for my husband and me to see them bloom after two months of sowing, transplanting, and monitoring. Just seeing them bud was thrilling! I tried growing Zinnias from seeds too, but somehow they never thrived past the sapling stage. But, I don’t feel demotivated because gardening is like gambling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. No matter what, I will keep trying to grow flowers, basking in the success, and learning from failures. Because I have come to a stage of loving them where I can’t do without at least some of them being around me. The more, the merrier!